


Walk a Mile

by Zinnith



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Kink Meme, Pepper is protective, Steve will get it eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-05
Updated: 2012-06-05
Packaged: 2017-11-06 22:45:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/424090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zinnith/pseuds/Zinnith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are YouTube videos of Tony Stark throwing up in public.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walk a Mile

**Author's Note:**

> Repost from [avengerkink](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/5758.html?thread=8057214#t8057214) and based on a line from [Near-Death Experience with a Side of Shawarma](http://archiveofourown.org/works/406703).

Pepper likes Steve Rogers, she really does. He’s the kind of old-fashioned gentleman that just don’t exist these days, and it’s very refreshing to be around someone who’s genuinely _nice_.

However, there are days when she would very much like to introduce her Manolo Blahniks to his backside. She wouldn’t mind doing the same thing to Clint for telling Steve about YouTube in the first place.

Most of the time, he just looks at funny cat videos or leaves encouraging comments to the vlogs of various angsty teenagers, but now and then he comes across something that needs explanation, and Clint seems to have found a way to make sure he never has to be present for those occasions.

Steve is sitting at the kitchen island with his iPad when Pepper walks into the kitchen, and from the frown on his face, she can see at once that she’s about to get pulled into another lesson in the never-ending class of Peculiarities of the 21:th Century 101. At least they already got the planking over with.

She grabs a bottle of water from the fridge and walks around the island to peek over Steve’s back and see what’s putting that expression on his face this time.

Oh. It’s _that_ video.

The footage is grainy, but you can make out the lecture hall and the stage with the podium. Tony’s standing behind the podium, holding on to the edges so hard that his knuckles are going white, but he’s still weaving noticeably back and forth. 

Pepper remembers that day, remembers exactly what’s going to happen next, but it doesn’t stop her stomach from churning as she watches Tony take a shaky step away from the podium before he falls to his knees and is violently sick all over the stage.

“Did - does that happen a lot?” Steve asks. The frown on his face is deep enough that it looks like it might get stuck there permanently. 

Pepper sighs and reaches over his shoulder to close the browser window. It’s been long enough that the video shouldn’t make her angry anymore, but she’s still filled with unreasonable rage every time she sees the title. _drunk tony stark pukin evrywhere LOL!_ The asshole who uploaded it can’t even spell properly.

It never fails to make her furious when people who don’t know him think they understand Tony, that they can tell everything about him from the tabloid headlines. It’s not that he doesn’t have flaws - Pepper has had first-hand experience with all of them and she still spends approximately forty percent of their time together trying not to strangle him. But that’s different. He’s hers and she’s got the _right_.

“Not as often as you might think,” Pepper says, in answer to his question. “On that particular occasion, he had stomach flu and was running a fever of 103, but he refused to accept that he was sick.”

She’s trying very hard to keep her voice calm and level, but she can’t stop thinking about how Tony had be admitted for dehydration despite his protests that he was fine, and how the papers kept hounding her about his ‘collapse’ and just wouldn’t leave them _alone_.

There’s a faint blush of shame over Steve’s cheeks now. He clearly realizes he’s been making unfair assumptions, and Pepper almost feels a little guilty, because he’s not _completely_ wrong.

Maybe she ought to tell him about that disastrous birthday celebration. Maybe she ought to tell him about the time Tony ended up in a fountain in central L.A. with two Sports Illustrated swimsuit models and a bottle of champagne. Maybe she ought to tell him about all the times she and Happy have been forced to bodily escort him from a party and pour him into a car to get him home before the stocks make another head dive.

In the end, Pepper decides to go for the sensible approach.

“A lot of people will tell you a lot of different things about Tony,” she explains. “Not all of it is true. If you really want to get to know him, the internet isn’t the best starting point.”

Steve nods slowly and puts the iPad away. “I’ll remember that. Thank you.”

He grabs a banana from the fruit bowl on the kitchen counter and leaves, heading for the stairs that lead down to Tony’s workshop. Pepper drinks her water and smiles to herself and thinks that, given enough time, Steve will probably figure it out for himself.


End file.
